Psychometric Evaluation of the General Life Satisfaction Scale (SOZŽ)

Amer Delić, Siniša Subotić, Džanan Berberović

Abstract

The paper presents the psychometric validation of the General Life Satisfaction Scale (GLSS/SOZŽ) on a sample of 450 respondents from BiH (60.22% females, 79.11% students), of the average age of 23.14 (SD=5.33) years. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the best fitting were two bi-factor models, which both had global satisfaction with life factor and two and four (respectively) orthogonal domain-specific factors. However, the results implied the functional unidimensionality of the questionnaire and a justification for the total score usage for most practical purposes. Five items were eliminated due to poor psychometric characteristics. The remaining 15 items showed a high to very high discrimination. The total score of the questionnaire had a high internal consistency and was the most informative in the very low to moderately high latent trait range. The questionnaire showed satisfactory convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Therefore, the (reduced) SOZŽ questionnaire can be recommended from the psychometric point of view. With depressiveness as a criterion example, we established that SOZŽ is a good predictor of depressiveness. However, the predictive value of SOZZ is only marginally higher in comparison to three times shorter SWLS questionnaire. This implies that the “essence” of general life satisfaction could likely be measured in a more efficient, i.e., shorter way.

Krstić, M., Ranđelović, D., & Babić, A.J. (2013), “Factors of mental health of students at the university of Pristina-Kosovska Mitrovica”, Journal of Educational and Instructional Studies in the World, 3 (2), 87-93